The mind-reading machine: 'Psychic' computer invented that can tell what you're thinking

Volunteers were asked to think about video footage they had seen while their brains were scanned. A special computer was able to tell what they were thinking about 45% of the time

A computer program that can read your mind has been developed by British scientists.

In tests, it was able to access and interpret memories by scanning the brain patterns of volunteers.

The computer had a high success rate in telling which of three short films the subjects were thinking about.

Eleanor Maguire, of the University College London research team,
said the work meant we were 'approaching the realm of mind-reading'.

The seven-second film clips showed women going about daily
tasks, such as posting a letter. Then, while their brains were scanned,
the volunteers were asked to think about what they had seen.

The brain lit up differently for each film, allowing the
researchers to create a program that homed in on the patterns. The
volunteers were then asked to think about the clips again and the
'psychic' computer worked out which one they had in mind.

The machine recorded a 45 per cent success rate -
significantly higher than would have been expected through chance
alone, the journal Current Biology reports.